Car of the decade
Now that was easyI've been reading through some of the Best of 2000 car articles in various auto magazines, so I decided to do my own version.
Except, when it comes to hybrid cars, the Toyota Prius so dominates the list that its not really worth pretending that there is any serious competition.
I would have liked to fit the Ford Fusion hybrid and the Honda Insight into this piece as serious contenders to the Car of the Decade, but how could I? In terms of sales, neither competes with the Prius - not even close.
So, picking the Car of the Decade was easy this decade. Fortunately, next decade should be a far more interesting story.
Still, will any other hybrid, including plug-in hybrids, outsell the Prius in the next decade?
Labels: Hybrid Vehicles, toyota prius
posted by Dahcredyns at
8:31 AM
4 Comments:
The car of the next decade will still be the Prius or a Prius derivative, such as the plug-in Prius.
I found this article interesting:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/12/23/AR2009122303463.html?hpid=artslot
good holidays to ya'll bloggers!
Larry,
Nice article.
Range and a lack of charging stations still remains the big issue with electric cars, especially the Mini-E that this article is written about.
What fascinates and disturbs me most about this article is the assumption of the needed battery breakthrough cited by the BMW exec.
Yet, according to the scientists, such a breakthrough - almost assuredly - will require decades to develop and roll out.
It just seems to me the best path to electrification is today's hybrid. Moreover, such a hybrid should be coupled with alternative fuels, etc.
"We must move forward with electrification" says Bill Ford. Yet, what do token EVs really mean, especially when the government is covering significant amounts of the costs of electrification?
Several years ago, Bill once claimed Ford would be selling hundreds of thousands of hybrids by now. Unfortunately, not enough Ford consumers are interested in Ford hybrids at today's Ford hybrid pricing.
How are more expensive plug-ins going to change that, apart from some battery breakthrough that will probably take decades to have a serious impact?
It seems to me Bill is just lobbying for more aide while making excuses for why Ford's fleet fuel economy is so far behind Hyundai, Honda and Toyota.
Isn't it time to focus less on 'what if's' and more on 'what cans'? It's so easy to talk about the great change of tomorrow while doing so little today.
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